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Lecturers

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the ability of part-time lecturers to provide quality support to their students. [18674]

Margaret Hodge: The Department is not aware of any issues regarding the ability of part-time lecturers to offer quality support to their students. NATFHE recently published a report 'in From the cold' about part-time lecturers in higher education, which did not uncover any problems in this area. Membership of the ILT helps lecturers to ensure that they are equipped with the skills necessary to be able to give a high standard of teaching to their students. The ILT encourages membership of part-time staff.

School Records

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance she has issued to (a) local education authorities and (b) schools in respect of (i) their responsibilities for the preservation of school records and (ii) their co-operation with local public records offices in order to maintain the integrity of school records for the purposes of historical research; and if she will make a statement. [15831]

Mr. Timms: We have issued no guidance to local education authorities and schools on these matters. As schools' own records are not public records, it is for them to make their own decisions, consulting local public records offices as they think fit.

TRANSPORT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND

THE REGIONS

Wychavon District Council

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what recent assessment he has made of the improvement in the performance of the planning department of Wychavon district council; and if he will make a statement. [14283]

Ms Keeble: We monitor all authorities' performance in handling planning applications on a quarterly basis. The most recent figures show that Wychavon determined

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69 per cent. of applications within eight weeks in the period April to June 2001, compared with 35 per cent. in the equivalent period in 2000. The authority is subject to a Best Value performance standard that requires it to determine at least 65 per cent. of applications within eight weeks in 2001–02.

West Coast Main Line

Mr. Page: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what are the (a) original and (b) latest estimates of the (i) cost and (ii) longevity of the West Coast Main Line works in Hertfordshire. [15804]

Mr. Jamieson: It is not possible to give a breakdown of costs of the works in Hertfordshire alone. We know from our discussions with the Strategic Rail Authority, Railtrack and Virgin Trains that the project is facing problems in terms of cost increases and uncertainty about the timescale for delivery. Works in Hertfordshire will include major track, signalling and power supply replacement. There are major packages planned for the summer of 2002 and spring 2003 in the Hemel-Tring area, and major resignalling works planned for the Watford area in 2004.

Street Lighting

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if local transport plan funding in 2002–03 will include funding for street lighting. [16079]

Ms Keeble: The Government are committed in the 10-year Plan for Transport to tackling the maintenance backlog for local authority roads, bridges and street lighting. Over £30 billion is being provided for local road maintenance over the next 10 years, an extra £9 billion (27 per cent. in real terms) above the funding levels in the previous 10 years. Capital expenditure on maintenance, which is used to tackle deterioration, will increase by nearly £7 billion over the 10 years.

Funding for the maintenance and renewal of street lighting is currently made through the Highways Maintenance Standard Spending Assessment element of Revenue Support Grant. No specific provision has been made in the 2002–03 capital maintenance settlement for renewal of street lighting. The first priority in the 10-Year Plan is to halt the deterioration in carriageways and footways and to continue the bridge strengthening programme. Additional provision for street lighting renewal may be made through the LTP system in later years. For the present, authorities have discretion over the funding provided for maintenance and smaller integrated transport schemes and may use this to fund capital works on street lighting where this is a local priority.

DTLR is aware that street lighting columns in a number of authorities are failing structurally, but does not have sufficient information to determine the number of columns that are unsafe. Local authorities have agreed with DTLR that a national condition survey for street lighting should be introduced, and that information from this should be used to compile a national inventory. In future years the inventory could be used to target funding for tackling the street lighting backlog.

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Motorway Speed Limits

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list those sections of motorway that have (a) a 50 mph limit, (b) variable speed limits and (c) other speed limits less than the national limit. [16598]

Mr. Byers [holding answer 20 November 2001]:

50 mph speed limit

M1 Junction 1 (A406)—northbound link roads/small length of main northbound carriageway

M4—Junction 4 to Elevated Section—50 mph

M4 Heathrow Spur

M11 Southbound approach to Junction 4 (A406)

M606 link to the westbound carriageway of M62 at Junction 26

M6 between Junctions 3 and 4

M1/M62 Links at Junction 42/Junction 29 Lofthouse

M65 approach to Junction 1A

M621 Junction 1 to Junction 6, including all slip roads

M61 Kearsley Spur

Variable speed limit

M25 Junctions 10–15

Other speed limits less than the national limit

M1—lengths of two northbound link roads closest to Junction 1—30 mph

M4 Elevated section (west of Junction 2-Junction 1)—40 mph

M1 Junction 2 (A1) slip roads—30 mph

M1 Junction 6 Southbound part of entry and exit slip roads—30 mph

M32 between J2 and 3—60 mph

M621 J1–6 30 and 40 mph speed limits on entry and exit slip roads.

Planning Appeals (Buckingham)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many appeals against refused planning applications he has received in 2001 in respect of sites in the Buckingham constituency. [16900]

Ms Keeble: The provision of information on planning appeals is the responsibility of the Planning Inspectorate. I have asked the Inspectorate's Chief Executive, Mr. Chris Shepley, to write to the hon. Member.

Letter from C. J. Shepley to Mr. John Bercow, dated 28 November 2001:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your Question about the number of planning appeals received from within your constituency this year.

I regret I cannot be specific as our records are based on Local Authority areas. Within the Aylesbury Vale District Council area, 68 appeals against refused planning applications have been received since 1 January 2001. Of these, 2 have a Buckingham postal address.

Railway Workers

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many railway workers have made representations to him since 5 October; and on what subjects. [17114]

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Mr. Jamieson: My right hon. Friends the Secretary of State and the Minister for Transport have had a number of meetings with trade union representatives to discuss the concerns of railway workers. In addition, we have received letters from individual railway workers.

Rent Restructuring

Mr. Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will publish representations he has received from (a) the local authority associations, (b) organisations representing tenants' interests and (c) registered social landlords regarding the implementation of the rent restructuring proposals in April 2002. [19039]

Ms Keeble: We are placing copies of the responses to the consultation on "HRA subsidy and rent restructuring" in my Department's library. The responses to the consultation following the April 2000 Housing Green Paper, which first outlined our proposals for rent restructuring, have already been placed in the Departmental library.

Mr. Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the estimated savings to the Treasury are in the next financial year following implementation of the Government's proposals on rent restructuring. [17169]

Ms Keeble: None. There is no intention that the technical changes designed to bring the assumptions in the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system back into line with actual costs and resources should be used either to reduce or increase the aggregate level of resources available to councils nationally.

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